MAGNO LIA CONSPFCUA. 
YULAN MAGNOLIA. 
Class. Order. 
POLYANDRIA. POLYGYNIA. 
Natural Order. 
MAGNOLIAS. 
Native of 
Height. 
Flowers in 
Duration. 
Introduced 
China. 
30 feet. 
Mar. April. 
Perennial. 
in 1780. 
No. 236. 
The term Magnolia has been adopted in honour 
of Peter Magnol, a diligent French botanist, born in 
1638, resident at Montpellier. Conspicua, from the 
Latin, synonymous with the English word, conspicu- 
ous, excepting that it also implies beautiful. Yulan, 
from yu, purple, and lan, a lily, is the vernacular 
name; probably applied indiscriminately to a purple 
flowered species, and also to our present subject. 
There is not, perhaps, any family of trees, existing 
through the forests of all the milder regions of the 
earth, which conbines so magnificent an assemblage 
as we find united under the name Magnolia. Some 
species raise their lofty branches above a hundred 
feet in height; whilst others vary from twenty to 
fifty ; and two or three are dwarf. They are clothed 
in bright and elegant foliage ; and most of the species 
produce thousands of lily-like odoriferous blossoms, 
that may literally be said to perfume the whole coun- 
try which they inhabit. Kalm says, that by the 
scent, a tree in flower, may be discovered at the dis- 
tance of three quarters of a mile; and some persons 
compute that their lemon-like odour is occasionally 
perceptible at three or four times that distance. 
